Keeping our fingers crossed

Feb.13, 2008

Keeping our fingers crossed

ISRAEL is of course jubilant over the apparent assassination of Imad Fayez Mughnieh, head of Hizbollah’s operations, in Damascus late on Tuesday, but its denial of any role in the killing fails to be convincing.
The car-bomb attack in the Syrian capital bore all halmarks of an operation carried out by Israel's super-secret Mossad agency, which specialises in killing Israel's "enemies" around the world without leaving any evidence to prove its involvement but enough to suggest that it was the Jewish state's way of getting at its adversaries.
We have seen scores of such operations in the region. Among the first of them were the bombings that maimed West Bank leaders Bassam Al Shakaa and Fahad Qawasmeh in the early 80s, when the internal Israeli "security" services benefited from Mossad's technical expertise and used it against them.
Mossad agents were closely involved in the 1974-1992 Lebanese civil war and they played their roles in carrying out bombings and other attacks that added to the chaos and confusion of the strife there with no one being able to pinpoint who was doing what.
In the latest case also, it could and would never be proved that Mossad was behind Mughnieh's assassination (until and unless someone who was part of the team or whoever ordered it opts to recalls the killing some years down the line).
Israel may have its axe to grind against anyone, as the case was indeed with Mughnieh, who was described as plotter of major anti-US and anti-Israel operations in the last 25 years. However, by carrying out the killing in sovereign Syrian territory, Israel is challenging the established rules and code of international conduct. Charges that Mughnieh was behind anti-Israeli operations beyond the borders of Lebanon could not be any justification for Israel to take its fight beyond its own borders. The reason is simple: Israel is a state and it has a government which claims to be part of the civilised international community which is bound by a set of conventions and charters which do not permit a country to carry out acts of sabotage in the territory of another country. But then, that was never a consideration that bothered Israel and there is little reason to see any change in that position.
In the immediate context on the ground, we could expect an explosion of Hizbollah anger and vengence against the killing of Mughnieh, who ranked among the top leaders of the movement. We do not yet what form and shape the Hizbollah retaliation could take, but there is not much doubt that the group has the resources, both human and material, to carry out spectacular attacks.
Compounding the fears is today's rally in Lebanon marking the death anniversary of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri. Given the already high tensions in Lebanon, it would not take more than a strategically placed and timed Mossad operation for the situation to explode. We could only hope that nothing of the sort happens.